This invention relates to a musical instrument which is controlled or played by the player's foot. Musical instruments which are played by foot are known in various types. In pipe organs and electronic organs, there are pedal keys to be played by one or both feet, mainly for controlling the tone degrees of the bass range. Foot keys may be completed by a plurality of additional foot controlled elements in order to simplify the manual playing actions of the player. Such a bass pedal with its additional control elements is described in West German Offenlegungsschrift No. 25 26 624, published Jan. 2, 1976.
Among percussion instruments, there are also foot controlled instruments, such as the bass drum and the hi-hat. These instruments have a lever plate moved up and down by the foot. Those lever plates may be regarded as the control device or playing device of the mentioned instruments.
As a result of the heaviness and smaller capability of the leg-foot-member as compared to the arm-hand-member of a human person, foot controlled instruments are generally used in an accomplishing or completing function or relation to a manually controlled instrument. This means that the production of accompanying and more filling sounds should be under the foot control, whereas the dominant musical parts should be produced under manual control. This splitting of the parts of the performance causes the player's attention to be drawn considerably or even almost totally to the manual performance when playing. This fact demands that the foot control actions should burden the player as little as possible, concerning his attention and his physical actions,
The known foot controlled instruments for the performance of musical tones in the bass range have considerable disadvantages with reference to the playing or controlling actions, which result from the design of their playing or control members. The usual geometrical structure of the foot keys for the control of different tone degrees is advantageous only for those players who play manually on a common piano keyboard. The players of other instruments, such as stringed instruments, guitars and violins, and wind instruments, for instance, think in other geometrical structures when searching the different tone degrees. For that reason, the geometrical coincidence of foot keys and manual keys has has no special advantages for such players. A very serious disadvantage of the conventional geometrical structure of the foot keys results from the fact that large movements of the leg-foot-member must be made while playing, thus enhancing the awkwardness of the leg-foot-member and diminishing the player's energy in the manual field.
An additional and complementary use of bass pedals has not become customary especially for players of stringed and wind instruments although, as one may observe very often when rhythmic music is performed, many players like to move a foot rhythmically against the floor.
It is the object of the invention to eliminate the above mentioned disadvantages and to design a foot controlled musical instrument which has such control members, such playing correlations to the manual field, and such qualities of sound that keyboard players and, in like manner, players of other instruments, especially polyphonic plucked instruments, can use it as a perfect tone instrument complementary to the manually played main instrument.
This object is achieved through the fact that one or several control boards for foot control are placed in the action range of the player's foot, and each of these control boards has a movable bearing plate for the heel of the foot, serving as a bearing or supporting device for the player's leg-foot member, and further serving as a control device when moved by the player's foot, and pedal keys are arranged in a radial or almost radial relation to the heel bearing plate in position to be touched by the anterior part of the foot (fore-foot, or toes) while the heel remains on its bearing plate, thus rendering possible the control of tone degrees and other controls in an easy and convenient manner and without fatigue to the player, since the weight of his leg-foot member remains supported entirely or mainly by the heel bearing plate.
To simplify the description of the different control or playing elements, referring to their arrangement and mode of action, the x, y, z coordinate system will be used. The x-y plane is approximately parallel to the floor, and the y axis has about the same direction as the upper thigh of the player's leg-foot member used for playing, while the x axis is approximately horizontal and perpendicular to the y axis, that is, it extends crosswise or from side to side relative to a seated player. The z axis is vertical or approximately vertical, approximately mutually perpendicular to the x and y axes. The heel bearing plate, which is movably mounted on a control board or mounting board, has its top or heel-receiving surface aligned in the x-y plane. The whole weight of the player's leg-foot member, or such part of the weight of the player's body as is transmitted via the leg, rests on and is supported by this heel bearing plate.
The instrument of this invention should usually be played from a sitting position. Then the player puts the heel of his leg-foot-member on the bearing plate. In this way the anterior part of his foot is kept ready and unimpeded for playing action.
The movability of the bearing plate has to render possible the generation of control operations, in the main. Additionally, it facilitates and improves the playing action of the foot. The movability of the bearing plate may be in a direction which is linear or curved or circular. For clarity of understanding, the various motions will be described with reference to the above mentioned x, y, z coordinate system. Other kinds of motions or combinations of movement can be used also.
The foot-hold or heel-contacting portion of the bearing device is preferably embodied as a circular platform mounted for rotation in the x-y plane. This rotary movability facilitates the turning of the foot around the vertical axis of the shank or pivot of the platform, which will be called the heel plate.
The movability of the bearing device in x, y, or z direction renders possible different control operations. Continual adjustments as well as switching operations may be performed by these movements. The pedal keys for selection of the tone degrees are mounted on the control board in a radial or almost radial relation to the pivot of the heel plate. The maximum length of the arc of a circle on which pedal keys might be arranged depends on the maximum rotation angle which the foot can do in a convenient or comfortable playing action. By reason of the limitation of the rotation angle and of the low precision of the turning action of the foot, it is necessary to keep down the number of the pedal keys in order to achieve a good survey and an ability to find and touch a desired pedal key without visual control of the foot position.
Regardless of the tone system used, all pedal keys preferably have the same shape and embodiment. If the twelve-step tempered tone system is used, the above mentioned shortness of the arc of circle makes it impossible to have a separate pedal for each tone degree. According to the invention, each pedal key is attached to several tone degrees, and these tone degrees are distinguished from each other by an additional control operation responsive to movements of the heel plate. If the tone scale is extended to several octaves, the desired octave range is controlled or selected by a different control operation or movement of the heel plate. It follows that preferably only six pedal keys are arranged on the control board. Hence all twelve tone degrees of the tempered system are divided into two sets of tones, and the desired set is selected by a switch-over operation of the heel plate.
The provision of six pedal keys provides a good arrangement, and is preferred. With six keys, a non-visual finding of a desired key (that is, a finding only by the sense of touch or sense of motion of the foot) is easily possible because of the fact that, among the constellation or assembly of all the pedal keys, the position of a desired key can easily be remembered and imagined by the player. The distance separating one pedal key from another is well adapted to the given precision of motion of the human leg-foot-member, and is also appropriate and satisfactory when fast tone lines are to be played.
Although six pedal keys are preferred, it is possible to divide the twelve tone degrees into three sets of four tones each, using only four pedal keys instead of six. But there is a disadvantage to this, in that three control positions of the heel plate are required to select the desired tone set, instead of only two control positions as when six keys are used.
The striking of the pedal keys with the anterior part of the foot serves for the selection of tone degrees and further serves for the control of a dynamic tone attack (piano forte), that is, a variable loudness or volume of the played tone. For this last mentioned control, it is possible to equip each pedal key with its own action converted, as is usually done. However, according to one aspect of the present invention, all six pedal keys may be mounted on a key plate which is movably mounted on the control board for movement in the x-axis direction. Then only one action converter need be provided for control of a dynamic tone attack, this action converter being responsive to movement of the key plate in the x direction. All additional control members which will be used when playing are mounted on the control board.
The instrument according to the preferred embodiment of the invention consists mainly of two parts, considered from the standpoint of its architecture or construction and its function. One part is the control device, that is, the arrangement of all elements and members with which the player controls or plays the instrument. The other part is the device for sound generation, that is, the arrangement of all elements and members which generate and alter or form the sound. These two main parts may be placed in a single housing, or in two separate housings.
According to the invention, the control part might be played with one foot or with two feet. If two, each foot has its own bearing device (heel rest plate) and its own set of pedal keys. Thus there are two bearing devices and two sets of pedal keys if the player is to use two feet. This double equipment may be mounted on a single control board, or on two separate control boards. The control device or part may have its technical embodiment as a purely mechanical device, or preferably as an electro-mechanical device.
The sound generation device or part of the instrument can use purely mechanical means for generating the sound, or electromechanical means, or purely electronic means. The nature of the manually controlled main instrument will determine the actual construction or equipment of the accompanying foot-controlled instrument of the present invention. For example, if the main instrument has electronic sound generation, it will be satisfactory for sound harmony that the foot-controlled instrument also has electronic sound generation. The present state of technology in the art of electronic sound generation provides many technical solutions which satisfy every demand.
When the foot-controlled instrument of the present invention is used to accompany a stringed instrument, for example an electric guitar, an electromechanical sound generating means will preferably be used. Such means will include, for example, open oscillating strings each having a fixed pitch, the strings being stimulated for oscillation and muted through electro-mechanical means of known form. The vibration of the strings is converted into electric oscillations by pick-ups, and conveyed via conventional equipment for sound altering and sound amplification to the loud speakers, the sounds from which are heard by the listeners or auditors.
The advantages of the present invention include the fact that the arrangement and mode of action of the control means allow a favorable performance of tone lines and other sound phenomena, in consideration of the capability of the leg-foot-member of the player. Tiresome movements are avoided, the control motions are short, and the arrangement of the pedal-keys provides a good survey and orientation, finally causing the manual playing of the main instrument to be carried out in an unimpeded manner.